What is grace?
Some time ago, I had promised a sister-in-Christ to look up on this verse:
Romans 9:15 "For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
Once I've looked it up, I learned that this was actually Paul quoting from the book of Exodus, in:
Exodus 33:19 "And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy."
This was the LORD telling Moses that he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion, and mercy on whom he will have mercy. Therefore, compassion is another word for "grace". I never knew that!
Ecclesiastes 5:2 "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few."
It was a good thing I didn't answer her rashly the other day otherwise, I would have missed out a blessing from God.
Romans 9:13 "As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."
The context of Romans 9:15 can be explained from this verse, which is again, Paul quoting from:
Malachi 1:2-3 "I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, 3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness."
This was Paul tying together the different passages of Scripture by inspiration of the Holy Ghost: from the book of Exodus and the book of Malachi. These two brothers, Jacob and Esau, are prefigures by which God demonstrates to us two different groups of people: ones whom he will have compassion, and ones whom he will not:
Jacob as a prefigure of ones whom God will have compassion;
Esau as a prefigure of ones whom he will not.
Genesis 25:34 "Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright."
Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a morsel of meat, and afterward, God made sure that he would not inherit the blessing. The writer of Hebrews wrote:
Hebrews 12:16-17 "Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. 17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."
The part after the colon mark (‘:’) in verse 17 tells us why Esau was rejected, that is, he found no place of repentance even though he sought it carefully with tears. False repentance has a form of sorrow, but it is not godly sorrow.
Proverbs 13:13 "Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded."
This verse equates "the word" to "commandment", and the latter is a reference to the ten commandments. The word “birthright” is found exactly 10 times in the King James Bible. What is birthright? Birthright is a right at birth to inherit a blessing from God.
John 3:16 "¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Eternal life is a "birthright" that anybody can inherit. Yet, Esau despised his birthright and thus God has rejected him. Likewise, whosoever despiseth the word shall God also reject, but he that feareth the commandment shall God have compassion (grace).